Authentic Leadership: What the GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance Can Teach Us About Letting Go

If you know me, you know that the Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance is often my favorite four days of the year. It is a space filled with art, rhythm, community, and an undeniable energy that feels like a collective exhale.

The festival has something for everyone. There are babies dancing alongside teenagers, alongside people in their 80's. There are people who never go to sleep and there are others who wake up rested, bright and early to do yoga with the sunrise. There are five different stages with many types of music and performances, highlighting cultures from around the world. There are people looking out for each other, connecting, making new friends, and sharing food. There is even the Happiness Parade on the final day of the festival! (The photo to the left was taken by Ed Dittenhoefer and can be found on the GrassRoots website.)

This year, I volunteered as a Somatic Coach in the Healing Arts section of the festival. Healing Arts is my favorite corner of the festival. It is a place to unwind, step away from the noise and the crowds when needed, and get access to free healing arts (think: massages, reiki, acupuncture, sound baths, astrology readings, yoga classes, coaching sessions, Qigong, yoga classes, naturopathic medicine, etc.).

Throughout the weekend, as I volunteered my services as a Somatic Coach and connected with different individuals, a recurring theme emerged. Numerous people shared the exact same sentiment with me: I love this festival because I finally get to let go and actually be myself.

Wow.

Go ahead, take a big deep breath after reading that. Really let it sink in.

As I listened to the people around me, a profound gratitude set in—I was grateful that this space exists, that I was part of a container where people feel comfortable enough to let their truest, most authentic selves shine through, even if just for a few hours or a few days. What a gift it is to be part of a community that fosters that kind of liberation.

But right alongside that gratitude, I felt an immense sadness. My heart feels so heavy knowing that we live in a world where people feel the need to hide their authentic selves on a daily basis. For many of the people I spoke with, the freedom they felt at GrassRoots was a temporary exception to their "real" lives, and particularly to their jobs. In the workplace, they felt required to shrink, to mask, and to put on armor just to survive the week. And this burden is not distributed equally. While we might all feel this to some degree, for those with marginalized identities, showing up fully at work often carries real, systemic risks that make dropping the armor far more complex and perilous than it is for those of us with privileged identities. And identity is multifaceted. We all have many layers of identity, some of which maybe more salient in certain contexts and some of which feel more hidden or inaccessible in other contexts.

This duality got me thinking deeply about the work I do, and the critical importance of authenticity in our organizations. As leaders, we set the energetic and cultural tone. If we are leading from a place of self-protection and masking, we are actively building cultures that require our teams to do the same. But when we show up authentically, we create the safety for the people around us to drop their masks, too.

In Dare to Lead, Brené Brown captures this dynamic perfectly. She writes:

"Courage is contagious. To scale daring leadership and build courage in teams and organizations, we have to cultivate a culture in which brave work, tough conversations, and whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded." 

Think about that phrase: whole hearts are the expectation, and armor is not necessary or rewarded.

When we create cultures that result in our teams leaving their authentic selves behind, we are losing out on their brilliance, their creativity, and their unique wisdom. We are asking them to fit in, rather than allowing them to authentically belong. As Brown notes later in the book:

"True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn't require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are." 

Just imagine what the world could be like if we stopped hiding pieces of ourselves. Imagine what could become possible in our organizations, our communities, and our lives if we let go of the armor and allowed people to truly, fully be themselves.  

What a world that would be. It’s such a liberating, expansive thought—and it’s a world I believe we can build. It starts with us. It starts with us finding our authentic selves, dropping our own armor, and bravely inviting others to do the same.  

So when was the last time you felt like you were fully embracing your authentic self? Where were you, what was the context, and what were the conditions that allowed to let go of the masks you had been wearing? I imagine that for many of you, it may be hard to find or remember a time when you were able to bring your authentic self into your workplace. But if you do have a group of people, a place, or or time of their year (like the GrassRoots Festival!), think about what it means, and what it feels like to be your authentic self in those contexts. Then see if there is a way that you might be able to bring (even just an inch of) that into your work in the near future. Would it be safe for you to do so? And if it were safe, what might it look like to allow your authentic self to thrive at work? How might that feel? And what might it mean to those around you to see you model authenticity in this way?

If you'd like to connect with my more through coaching or consulting, please feel free to reach out or learn more about my services here: https://www.healplaylead.com/work-with-me.